Befriending Daphne Du Maurier as an editor for her book Enchanted Cornwall, Piers Dudgeon became fascinated with her family history: her father was the actor Gerald Du Maurier, her grandfather George Du Maurier invented the character of Svengali in his novel Trilby, and her first cousins were the Davies boys who inspired J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. In particular, Dudgeon noticed a pervasive, Svengali-like influence of "Uncle Jim" Barrie running through the families, and dug deeper when he learned that Daphne had had her diaries sealed until 2039. Here is his shocking portrait of a man who hypnotized those he loved into becoming characters in his own fantasies.

"Neverland has hot- and cold-running secrets, as well as tentacles that extend out to touch Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, and Arthur Conan Doyle."—NYTimes

"There might be scarier books [in 2009], but it's unlikely that any will be as luridly creepy as Neverland. Even if you already know a little about the sinister background of J.M. Barrie's classic play Peter Pan, you will be in for a shock. In these pages Piers Dudgeon presents a multi-generational history of psychological domination, unnatural family relations, predatory abuse, and suicide."—Washington Post